


Taking a stand.

by poenova



Category: EastEnders (TV)
Genre: Deja Vu, Gay Pride, Homophobic Attack, M/M, Romantic Gestures, Self-Acceptance, standing up to bullies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-09
Updated: 2019-07-09
Packaged: 2020-06-25 09:00:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19742425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poenova/pseuds/poenova
Summary: Ben is so used to being beaten for being himself at this point he doesn't feel anything other than the pain of his brusied face throbbing. Callum is still struggling waking up in a bed that's not got Ben in it. After he learns about Ben's attack he is enraged at his brother.





	Taking a stand.

**Author's Note:**

> Directly after the events of 5th July (Eastender's pride episode) and remaking the events of 8th July.  
> Ben and Callum: when each of them feels lost they find eachother.

Ben turned over in his bed. He winced in pain as his face hit the cold side of the pillow. Sitting up in his sheets, he saw the red stains of blood coating the pillow case, where his face was pressed up against all night. He limped out of bed and over to the bathroom. It was still dark outside, as he switched the light on, his eyes burnt with the shock of the brightness. One eye was inflamed and swollen, the other mildly bruised. The whole left side of his face was a purple-red tinge, veins in his forehead were significantly bluer than normal. Ben looked at himself in the mirror, he'd never found himself unappealing until this moment. It wasn't the blood and bruises that disgusted him, it was the fact that people like Stuart still existed. That they could still be so ignorant to the existence of other people different to themselves. He'd built this strong exterior to shield himself from a world that didn't want to know him and now that shield was splintered and broken once again. He couldn't help but cry, there, staring at himself. within minutes, he heard the sounds of his mum, Kathy, shuffling about in her room. Probably still head-over-heels at the success of Pride last night. She had no idea about him yet. Ben didn't want her to see him like that because he didn't want to ruin her success. He wiped the tears from his face, each tear stung as they hit his sensitive skin. He gulped down a glass of water and 3 painkillers and scuttled back to his room. Kathy made her way downstairs to prepare breakfast. She shouted up for Bobby. She didn't shout for Ben because she assumed he'd met some handsome bloke and gone home with him. Ben waited until he heard Bobby go down the stairs until he left his room. He had his hoodie and black leather jacket over the top, his hood was tightened over his head. He quietly made his way downstairs. Bobby and his mum were in the kitchen arguing over Bobby drinking orange juice from the carton again. The noise of the "discussion" was the perfect cover up for Ben to make his get-away. He left the house with the intention to find somewhere quiet he could just sit for a while. He hadn't thought about going to find Callum. In his mind, it was because he didn't want him to see him all battered like that. But deeper down, he didn't want Callum to know it was his brother that did it in the first place. He saw Callum get attacked by his father, he knew what that was like. He wouldn't want to lose Jay, he wouldn't want to think Jay was capable of beating someone up for being gay.

Ben headed for the park where he and Callum first kissed. The sun was just coming up when he turned the corner to the park. It was empty. A tiny part of him expected Callum to be sitting there waiting for him. A bigger part of him knew exactly where Callum was. At home, in bed with his fiancée. A girl. This was Ben's reality and he had to accept it. But it was getting harder and harder. Every time he saw Callum, every look they shared over crowds of unseeing eyes, every smirk hiding genuine pain or every time they brushed past each other and his whole body would tremble; each was another punch in the gut. The one person he didn't expect to see that morning was Whitney. She was walking to the market, new bags of clothes in her hands, a smile on her face. She noticed Ben, who was sitting with his back to her.

"What'd you get up to last night, or should I say who?" She laughed.

Ben turned to her, his bruises and disfigured face even clearer in the daylight. She stopped in her tracks.

"Ben! Oh my god!" She dropped her bags and ran over to him.

"Ben! Who did this to you?"

"Alright Whit?" He tried to joke.

Whitney got down on her knee, so she was level with him. She reached out to touch his face, he leant back.

"I'll call someone. Where's Kath?" Ben reached out to stop her from getting her phone out.

"Whit. Please... don't" His voice was soft and sad. She noticed his desperation.

"Come back with me, you can stay at our flat. Callum ain't got work today so he can look after ya" She pleaded.

The offer was so innocent and naïve it made Ben feel guilty. He couldn't deny he would have loved to be looked after by Callum that day but it would have been wrong to accept.

"Don't stop on my account. Ain't you got a stall to open?" He snapped.

"Ben?" She questioned.

"Go on, I don't need ya charity!" Whitney stepped back, her eyes filled with disbelief. She picked up her things and left. On her way to the market she took out her phone to ring Callum. Ben felt so bad for treating her like that, he looked to the floor in pain.

Callum woke up feeling like he had a hangover, his brain was throbbing and his heart ached. The bed was empty beside him. He looked to the alarm clock, it was 6am. The red light of the numbers projected across his face, making him rub his eyes. He glanced across his bedroom, there was a rainbow feather bower draped on the end of the bed next to Whitney's clothes. He pulled the covers over his face.

"Cal, you seen that extra pack of hangers I bought for the stall?" Whitney cried out from the kitchen.

"It's 6am!" Callum grunted.

"Alright moody" She joked back.

Callum couldn't stop thinking about last night. In fact he couldn't stop thinking about the last month. He couldn't stop thinking about Ben. Every second in the flat with Whitney was a second not with Ben. He didn't want to feel that way, he felt terrible for what he was putting her through. But what he had told Stuart wasn't a lie. He did love Whit. He loved her kindness and her soul. He loved her. He did. Just not in that way and it was killing him inside. Stuart's face after he confirmed him and Ben's affair. He said it was the only time they had done anything. That was the truth. What he didn't tell him was that he wanted it to happen again and that that want was so bad sometimes he could barely think or function.

"I'm off babe, you gonna come visit later?" She shouted out.

"Sure" he groaned.

Whitney made a kiss sound and then Callum heard the sound of the door shut behind her.

It'd been almost an hour since Ben first got to the park. The square was getting busier as people stumbled home from their late nights partying. Pride decorations were still covering every inch of every building. Ben saw Tina making her way to open The Prince Albert. He decided he had sat there long enough, by now Whitney had probably told most of the people at the market and probably called Callum as well. He decided to go get a coffee or anything to make him feel more alive. He walked into the café and all the eyes turned to him. He was used to getting looks from people but these were looks of pity more than they were of confusion. Each eye stuck into his back like a needle. He got his coffee, black. He turned to the quiet cafe cute, making sure to look everyone straight in the eyes.

"Got a good look?!" He exclaimed, putting up a front.

At that moment, Callum, on the phone to Whitney probably, walked into the café too. He stopped in his tracks, spotting Ben in front of him. Ben and him shared a look before Ben pushed his way past Callum, shoving him aside with a vigorous panic. Callum couldn't speak. Whitney had told him the extent of Ben's injuries on the phone, but seeing it in person was almost more than he could handle. His heart sank and his mouth opened in silent shock.

"Ben?" Callum ran after him, managing to catch up to him in the square.

"What Callum?" Ben exasperated. Callum looked so scared.

"Ben, what happened?"

"Leave it Callum will ya?" Ben sighed

"I won't!"

Ben looked up at Callum, in a kind of shock.

"If someone's hurt you I need to know." Callum continued. His voice was shaky.

Callum knew who had done it, deep down. He needed Ben to tell him though. He needed the proof. He needed the final nail in the coffin.

"Don't make me say it Callum." Ben pleaded.

"It was Stuart wasn't it, if you're protecting him...?"

"No..."

"Don't lie for him."

"I'm not lying for _him_."

They stared deep into each others eyes. The connection was so clear, so present, between them. The hurt that Stuart had caused Ben was unforgivable in Callum's eyes. Callum stormed off, in the direction of Stuart's flat.

"Callum?!" Ben called after him.

Callum was unstoppable. There was a rage inside him, a rage that was taking over his body and mind.

He slammed the door open. Stuart was inside, calm as anything.

"Alright brother?" Stuart asked.

"What the hell did you do?!" Callum's words spat out of his mouth like daggers.

"Hey, what you on about?"

"Don't you dare. Don't you dare deny it."

"Callum..."

"You seen Ben Mitchell today? Or was last night enough for you?!"

"I did it for you! He won't be bothering you anymore!" Stuart looked pleased with himself.

Callum sunk and had to catch himself on the kitchen countertop.

"You attacked him!"

"I shut him up."

"You beat him up. You punched him until he was unconscious. Jesus, Stuart, his face."

"I made sure he would leave ya alone!"

There was a long pause. "You're... You're just like dad" Callum sighed, on the verge of tears.

"Cal, I did this for you! Dad never did anything for ya!" Stuart was pleading a unwinnable case. Callum's perception of his older brother was forever changed.

"You know, when I told you about me and him. When I told you about Ben. I thought, just maybe, he might accept it. I thought my brother's a bit of a thug but he's not unreasonable. Maybe he might just be able to handle it and maybe even be happy for me a bit. Stupid me."

"Happy for ya...?" Stuart laughed.

"He tempted ya! He abused ya." He continued.

"Sorry to say this Stuart! I was the one to kiss him first! I. Kissed. Him. That's right, your brother wanted a man. Are you gonna beat me now?" Callum raged.

"See! He's manipulated ya, that's what they do"

"Don't bother coming to the wedding. I don't want to see you again. Don't come near me."

"What are you doing Cal?"

"You did this Stuart."

There was a new fire in Callum. His walk was prouder. His stand was taller. He was walking towards something, for once in his life, there was something he wanted. And he knew where it was.

Callum stood at the entrance to the park. Ben spotted him, wiping a tear away and shrugging it off.

"I said I wouldn't come back here." Ben chuckled, hiding the tears.

Callum moved forward.

"I talked to Stuart."

"You talked to your brother?"

"He ain't my brother."

Ben stood a bit taller. He watched as Callum made his way to within inches of him. The Deja vu was almost to much to handle.

"Ben... I'm so sorry. I never wanted any of this to happen."

"It ain't you. It's this world. As much as I want to believe it's changed, it hasn't and I'm always disappointed..."

"...I'm just so sick of being disappointed." Ben cried.

Callum reached out to touch Ben's face. Softly caressing his hurt cheek. Ben fell into the touch.

"You don't have to do this?" Ben pleaded.

"What if I want to do this."

Callum, once again, would make the first move. Leaning into a kiss that would change both men. He grasped each side of Ben's face and pushed his lips against his. A kiss in broad daylight, far from the painful, scared shadows they were both used to. A kiss none of them could deny or get away from. A kiss that made Callum feel alive. A kiss that made Ben feel accepted. Just a kiss between two men and a kiss no-one like Stuart could touch. This was their moment. And for this moment, everything was perfect.


End file.
